Local attorney Stuart Leeds has gotten the visiting judge in his disciplinary case removed just after the judge dealt a blow to Leeds' hopes of avoiding a suspension of his law license.

Without giving an explanation, Judge Carmen Rivera-Worley of Denton, Texas, last week granted a motion to remove the judge in Leeds' case, said Kim Bueno, a spokeswoman for the Commission on Lawyer Discipline.

Rivera-Worley could not be reached for comment and there is no written order by her in Leeds' case file.

The Supreme Court of Texas now has 30 days to appoint another judge to hear Leeds' case, Bueno said.

A spokesman for the court on Tuesday said it was unlikely that a new judge had been appointed, but he did not immediately know if any action had been taken.

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Marty Schladen

The disciplinary commission said it would continue to pursue its case against Leeds.

"We're going to continue to litigate," Bueno said.

Leeds faces disciplinary proceedings before the State Bar of Texas stemming from his behavior last year in a trial in which his client, 448th District Judge Regina Arditti was acquitted of bribery.

Leeds was convicted in August of five counts of contempt, also stemming from his behavior in the Arditti trial. Among them were that he called other lawyers and court workers liars, continued to ask questions after objections to them had been sustained and referred derisively to the judge in the Arditti case, Steve Smith of Brazos County.

His co-counsel in the Arditti case, Theresa Caballero, was convicted of nine counts of contempt in the same trial.

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Leeds and Caballero repeatedly claimed that Smith was racist, on the grounds that he wrote an email saying court would start at 8:30 a.m., even if it was earlier than customary in El Paso County. They tried unsuccessfully to recuse Smith from the Arditti trial.

Leeds and Caballero's behavior was "reasonably calculated to impede, embarrass and/or obstruct the court in its discharge of its duties," the judge in the contempt case ruled.

In their disciplinary proceedings, they both face an additional accusation stemming from an attempt to destroy the transcript of the Arditti trial.

Leeds tried to use an order to expunge Arditti's arrest record to get court reporters and Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner to destroy the transcript, even though Judge Smith ordered that one be preserved for use against the lawyers in contempt and disciplinary trials.

The disciplinary trials could result in a range of punishments, the most severe of which would be suspension or revocation of Leeds and Caballero's law licenses.

Last last month, Leeds entered into an agreement with the State Bar's Commission on Lawyer Discipline to accept a $1,000 fine and six-months probation. But the judge in the disciplinary case, Bob Parks of Monahans, Texas, rejected the punishment as being too light.

"The court has carefully considered its discretion to decline to approve the agreed judgment, including reviewing the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, which are designed not only to regulate attorneys and the interests of the Bar, but also to preserve the citizens' rights to participate in the justice system by a carefully constructed framework of regulations which permit civilized trials," Parks wrote.

Days later, Leeds' attorney, Caballero, demanded that Parks be removed from the case, arguing that Parks' order proved that he was prejudiced against her client.

"Judge Parks refused to sign the agreed judgment and issued a written statement making clear that he could not be fair, unbiased and that his judgment in the case could be reasonably be questioned," Caballero wrote in her motion to recuse Parks.

She added later that the motion was "based on comments he made in his order, and not the actual ruling, on which this motion to recuse is based."

Caballero could not be reached for this story. But in her motion, she also argued that by releasing the terms of Leeds' plea agreement, Parks might prejudice a potential jury.

Leeds is scheduled for a hearing next week, but his trial date hasn't been set. Caballero is slated for her trial - in which she is represented by Leeds - on Nov. 26.